The American Welfare System and Family Structure
利用美国各州福利政策与单亲母亲比例的空间数据，发现福利水平与单亲母亲的正相关在1970年才出现且仅限白人，质疑了福利政策对家庭结构变化的长期影响。
Abstract Cross-sectional studies find a positive relationship between a state's welfare benefits and single motherhood. But is this evidence of a "welfare effect" or rather of cross state differences in social attitudes that influence both policy and behavior? This paper demonstrates that the spatial variation in welfare policy long preceded the spatial correlation of policy and behavior, undermining the social norm hypothesis. But the findings also raise doubts about the role that welfare policy played in the changes in family structure over the century. The correlation between welfare benefits and family structure only appears in 1970, and then only for whites.